Marines Sign Miller

Thanks for the info. I think Japan will be in for a real shock when they see this guy. Miller is famous for his body of work-literally. He has tatoos all over his upper body, so much so that when he was with the Blue Jays he had to wear long sleeves all the time, even in the middle of the summer, because his tats were considered "too distracting" to hitters.

I don't think he'll be visiting any onsen during his stay in Japan. His upper body was once featured in a Sports Illustrated layout where it said that Miller was interested in only 2 things - stats and tats.

Which role is he going to be used in? What was the deal he was given, a 1/2 year deal?

He was signed to a one year deal to be the set-up guy. Something like $300,000 U.S.

Miller giving up four runs (on what was it, six pitches?) in the eighth inning has to be a big red flag to the Marines' staff. It is the second time he has given up the game on a home run in as many outings. Dooming him with the fans is the fact that he only has two outings with the team. Any predictions what will be done with this guy?

On another note, officials from the Marines, not the Marines fans, have made Watson's nickname "Watty." It was given to the leaders of the oendan who, in turn, told the fans of the (terrible) nickname, which in turn, caused the fans to confuse "Matty" (Franco) and "Watty" later on in the game. Furthermore, they have butchered his name with terrible katakana (Wa-to-so-n). Did the staff of the Marines fail to ask one of the many English speakers around how to pronounce the man's name!?

Message to the Marines officials responsible for this; you have foreigners around who can teach you how to do simple things like this much more quickly than you can figure it out. Utilize them (or hire me).

ワトソン is the standard katakana of that name. What do you propose? ワッツン?

Wa-to-so-n is what they generally use for Watson.

Exactly. I didn't know that it is the common katakana form of Watson. Blame it on my relative inexperience here, but it just seems messed up to me considering pronunciation.

Perhaps it was just me being a bit of a bitter gaijin there for a while. Most likely.

Beer, you did bring up an interesting point. Watson's name is a tough one to convert into Japanese since the pronunciation ends up being quite different.

The one name that I have a problem with is White. In English, it's pronounced ワイト. It's totally mind-boggling to me that Japanese people end up writing and pronouncing the name or color as ホワイト. Where the heck did the ホ come from?

Also, to get back to the original post, Justin Miller deserves a nickname. If John Wasdin is "Wayback" Wasdin, then Miller should be know as Justin "Come on baby light me up" Miller.